New Women () is a 1935 Chinese silent drama film produced by the United Photoplay Service. It is sometimes translated as New Woman. The film starred Ruan Lingyu (in her penultimate film) and was directed by Cai Chusheng. This film became one of Ruan Lingyu’s better known works. Her suicide on International Women’s day (8 March 1935) drew attention to the controversial status of new women and made this film a sensation in modern China. The product of "New Women" has been the result of a social economic trend and reform social movement that has been going on for decades. It offered criticism to China's traditional ideology and offered a change in China’s “old women” to “new women” as an alternative social convention. New Women was considered to be a “problem film” in inciting “the woman question”. This question is actually a set of questions which pertain to how the ‘new women’ of China would be considered within society. Questions such as what is the current reality of women’s status in China, who are China’s new women, and what their lives should be like were part of “the woman question”. New Women was based upon the life of Chinese actress and writer, Ai Xia, who had committed suicide in 1934. Ai Xia's death following her role in A Modern Woman (1933) inspired Cai Chusheng to emulate the tragedy in this film. A print of New Women is currently maintained by the China Film Archive. Synopsis The film centres around an educated and modern young woman, Wei Ming (Ruan Lingyu), living in 1920s Shanghai. As the film begins, Wei Ming is working as a music teacher for a girls’ school, harbouring dreams of becoming a writer. She befriends her neighbour Aying, who is a factory worker and teaches patriotic work songs to her coworkers. Dr. Wang, the school board minister, who is also Wei Ming's old classmate Zhang Xiuzhen's husband, likes Wei Ming and wants her to become his concubine. Wei Ming ignores his advances as she falls in love with the editor of a publishing company Yu Haichou. Yu Haichou, however, refuses Wei Ming's advances. Dr. Wang, angered by Wei Ming's rejection, retaliates against Wei Ming and convinces the principal of the school to fire her. At the same time Wei Ming's past catches up to her. Before coming to Shanghai, she had a love affair with a man who